Kishan accuses KCR of 'pedalling' lies over Centre's relief to farmers

Hyderabad: Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao while blaming the Centre asks State officials to spend the Central funds through SDRF to provide compensation to farmers for crop losses, said Union Minister of Culture and Tourism G Kishan Reddy here on Monday.

He accused KCR of pedalling blatant lies against the Centre for his publicity while farmers are suffering due to crop losses.

Reddy said the Centre had introduced the PM Fasal Bhima Yojana to address crop insurance coverage. The State government had initially joined the scheme,but withdrew later without any reason.

"Without foresight and a plan to address crop loss due to natural calamities and any alternative, the State withdrew from PMFBY, for political reasons. The crop loss to farmers in the State is left uncovered. But, farmers in other State are getting the benefit where the scheme is implemented compensating the crop losses".

Referring to recent statements of the CM after visiting crop-damaged areas, the Union minister said, he blamed the Centre for failing to compensate farmers, even as the State government issued memo to provide compensation to farmers from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).

He said the State share in the SDRF is only 25 per cent, as against the Center's share of 75 per cent. From 2014-15 to date, the Centre released Rs 2,196.60 crore to the State SDRF. In addition, Rs 873.27 crore has been released under NDRF. Together with SDRF and NDRF, a total of Rs.3,069.87 crore has been provided by the Central government to Telangana. In 2022-2023, The Centre contributed the first installment of Rs 188.80 crore; another Rs 188.80 crore will be transferred to the State SDRF for 2022-23.

The Union minister said as on April 1, 2022, the State SDRF account had funds of Rs 608.06 crore as balance in its account. Following the release of the Central share for the financial year 2022-23, along with the State, the SDRF has a corpus of approximately Rs 860 crore. Currently there are enough funds in the state SDRF to provide assistance to farmers who have lost their crops. If the State government is concerned about them, "I demand compensation from the treasury of the State government, along with the compensation given by SDRF," he said.

Reddy said it is clear that instead of understanding the plight of farmers who have lost their crops and helping them, the CM focused on blaming the Centre and gaining publicity.